Sunday, August 31, 2008

Tuesday, August 19, 2008

Your character wants something. Anything. Universal peace. The boy next door. The griffon egg at the pet store. A cherry pie like mom used to make. The last digit of pi. Faster than light transport. A glass of water. As grand or as simple as you want it to be.

There are, of course, obstacles between your character and what he or she wants. Want and obstacles are the cornerstone of fiction :-)

It can be a new character or an old character you want to discover more about.

Start writing. Let the words flow without worrying about quality or whether it makes sense. If your character changes wants in the middle, go with it.

Sunday, August 17, 2008

Thursday, August 14, 2008

Energumen - a person possessed as by an evil ghost, spirit, or entity.

Your character is a hunter of energumen. It's a typical fantasy element, sometimes placed in current times, but to be different, set it in the future. On Earth? On Mars? On a starship? On some other world of non-humans?

Does the energumen need killed or is the goal to remove the evil spirit? (Then what?)

Are the energumen obvious? Does the person know they're possessed? Does the person act in concert with the evil entity? If obvious, are they seen as "crazy" and how do you distinguish regular crazy people from possessed crazy people?

Is the entity truly evil? Or does just it need a host to survive in a symbiotic relationship, and the two can coexist together? Perhaps it's only the non-possessed who find the idea disturbing and the energumen is fine playing host. But if a person doesn't accepted the spirit until the spirit joins with them, then is it free choice?

Tuesday, August 12, 2008

"Lots of times you have to pretend to join a parade in which you're not really interested in order to get where you're going." -Christopher Morley, writer (1890-1957)

I'm guessing he meant metaphorically, going along in the direction people are headed to help you get where you're going, but what if it's a real parade? What kind of parade? The kind with floats? Dragon performers? Virtual? Military? Your guys or theirs? In war or peace? Prisoner? Slaves to market? KKK? Circus? A famous band or troupe coming to perform?

Why do you need to join? To hide in plain sight? To get across? To go with the flow? To get where they're going or somewhere along the way?